Why have battery energy storage and solar-plus-storage become such a key part of the US energy industry in a way that they have not in Europe, as yet? Corentin Baschet at technical consultancy and market analysis firm Clean Horizon took some of our questions.

While the renewable energy industry has suffered significant blows such as loss of employment during the COVID-19 crisis, venture capital (VC) funding into the battery energy storage sector in the first quarter of this year nonetheless saw a significant increase over the previous year’s equivalent period.

A roundup of news in brief from one of the world’s hottest markets for energy storage – Australia.

Massachusetts has issued an emergency regulation to its Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target (SMART) programme, that includes mandating the addition of energy storage on projects over 500kW.

“We are happy about the Italian government’s decision that allows us to fully resume business operations in Italy,” Manz AG CEO Martin Drasch has said, following a ruling that deems lithium-ion battery production to be of ‘strategic importance’ for the European country.

Energy storage manufacturing giant CATL has partnered with Shenzhen KSTAR Science & Technology to construct a new lithium-ion battery manufacturing facility Fujian, China.

Despite a subdued year in 2019 and a challenging start to 2020 caused by the COVID-19 outbreak, the outlook for energy storage remains strong, says Julian Jansen of market research group IHS Markit, taking a deep dive across segments and geographies.

AutoGrid has struck a deal to supply its distributed energy resources management system (DERMS) platform to NRTC, a cooperative association serving more around 20 million homes in rural America.

Targeting a national economic goal in mind of making hydrogen competitive with natural gas, Australia’s government has put AU$70 million (US$44.3 million) into a “deployment funding round” for renewable hydrogen.

Powin Energy has launched a set of three battery storage system products using CATL’s large form factor lithium-ion cells, including a system solution capable of 4+ hour duration and backed by a 20-year warranty.